About 155 aircraft will be delivered to China next year as the country's airlines expand their fleets, a top official said on December 26.

Twenty-five aircraft will be taken out of service. The airlines, combined, will have a fleet of more than 1,000 aircraft next year.

Meanwhile, 26 billion yuan (US$3.25 billion) will be invested in the civil aviation infrastructure next year, said Yang Yuanyuan, head of the General Administration of Civil Aviation (CAAC) at a two-day working conference in Beijing on December 26.

The money will be used to build and expand 33 airports.

"The ongoing expansion of the Beijing Capital International Airport will be the most important project next year," Yang said.

So far, the concrete structure of the third terminal at the airport has been completed at a cost of 21 billion yuan (US$2.63 billion), he said.

Yang also called for the speeding up of airport projects in Shanghai, Tianjin, Qingdao in Shandong, Shenyang in Liaoning and Qinhuangdao in Hebei, where the Olympic football preliminaries will be held.

Next year the CAAC will also explore the possibility of building an energy-saving, environmental friendly, high-tech airport in Kunming, capital of Southwest China's Yunnan Province.

Today, China has 147 civil airports, five of which were added this year, all in western China.

Yang said the CAAC would continue its support of airport projects in western China next year, though he did not give a figure.

According to the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10) of the civil aviation industry, about 60 airports will be built or expanded in China, most of which are in the western region.

Yang urged all airports and airlines to increase their investments in security facilities next year.

As an encouragement, the CAAC would also increase its financial support to upgrade facilities, he said.

In the first 11 months of this year, China's airlines carried 146.7 million passengers and 3.1 million tons of cargo, according to official statistics.

The industry is expected to transport 160 million passengers and 3.42 million tons of cargo for the year, an increase of 15.9 per cent and 11.5 per cent respectively over last year.

The industry has achieved a record 6.08 million safe flight hours.

Next year, the industry aims to carry 187 million passengers and 3.85 million tons of cargo.